Sci-Fi Legend Ronald D. Moore to be Honored at Austin Film Festival

Ronald D. Moore, a key force behind the political and moral complexity of modern sci fi classics Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Battlestar Galactica, and For All Mankind, will receive the 2024 Outstanding Television Writer Award at this year’s Austin Film Festival (Photo by Dennys llic)

Sometimes an unrelated degree takes you to your desired career. Take Ronald D. Moore, who studied political science at Cornell. Now he’s being awarded the the 2024 Outstanding Television Writer Award at this year’s Austin Film Festival.

Moore joins a roster of prior recipients that includes Damon Lindelof (Lost), Mitchell Hurwitz (Arrested Development), and Glenn Gordon Caron (Moonlighting).

This makes 2024 a bumper year for science fiction at AFF, as the festival has already announced that Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy will receive this year's Polly Platt Award for Producing.

Those college studies make more sense when you consider Moore’s filmography. His first writing gig was on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and his scripts helped deepen the political subtext of the show in Klingon-centric episodes like "Redemption," and his Hugo-winning script for series finale “All Good Things.” After that, he was supervising producer and later co-executive producer for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a series that placed interstellar diplomacy at its heart.

Moore went even deeper into political ethics in 2003 when he rebooted Battlestar Galactica for the Sci-Fi Channel. During his tenure as showrunner and executive producer, and then as executive producer of spinoff prequel Caprica, Galactica won a Peabody Award. Moore himself was nominated for an Emmy for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series, finally winning one in 2008 for Battlestar Galactica webisodes.

He continued that career of cerebral sci-fi with the Amazon/Channel 4 anthology series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, and most recently as the guiding force behind Apple TV+ For All Mankind, an alternative history of the space race. Plus, in the middle of all this, he squeezed in a little show called Outlander for Starz. Moore is currently developing shows for Disney's 20th Television through his company, Tall Ship Productions.

Moore will be a key player at this year’s AFF, not just receiving this honor but also taking part in two events. First, A Conversation With Ronald D. Moore will examine his career and filmography, while Script to Screen: Battlestar Galactica will go deeper into the show that he played a key role in updating.

The 31st annual Austin Film Festival runs Oct. 24-31. Tickets and passes at austinfilmfestival.com.
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